Many of us sense that the world is teetering on the abyss, while the party goes on in the financial power centers and the general public fixates on dead pop stars. The anxiety takes many forms and comes in different political colors. The documentary New World Order (out on DVD) looks at a confederacy of activists who feel threatened by a secretive power elite, seeking to establish one-world government and using 9-11 to facilitate their seizure of control.
The filmmakers, Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel, find diversity among these conspiracy theorists. Some are obviously not racists while others may have ties to white supremacists. Some point to legitimate grievances such as the Iraq invasion or the federal response to Katrina. Others are lost in a labyrinth of dark fantasy. None of them likes Bush, Obama, Hillary or McCain. Among politicians, Ron Paul is their man.
Fulminating at the center of this fringe is a podium-pounding demagogue, a radio performer and entrepreneur of anxiety called Alex Jones. Apoplectic with outrage, he rants about diabolical plots against our country, our sovereignty, our borders. From his lookout he sees the wire being strung around concentration camps capable of warehousing 50 million Americans. According to him, the rich have purchased getaway homes in the Cook Islands and Hollywood is relocating to Costa Rica. The rest of us will be abandoned to the Bilderbergers, a favorite hobgoblin of the conspiracy minded.
The film makes no comment on Jones and his followers, allowing a few people they encounter on the streets to take them to task. But the unblinking eye of their camera shows Jones as paranoid and egomaniacal. The bare-chested bicyclist across the street is Secret Service, he insists. The car trailing behind is obviously military intelligence. When the NYPD briefly hold him for trying to disrupt Geraldo Riveras broadcast from the 9-11 site, he is in his martyr element. Its crazy, and yetlets not forgetfringes can sometimes be right, and just because most conspiracy theorists appear to be nuts doesnt mean conspiracies dont exist. The facts dont support the scope of Jones notions about 9-11, but that doesnt mean that a conspiracy to invade blame Saddam and invade Iraq didnt take hold in the days that followed.
